TWENTY-FIVE years ago in Gdansk, in the north of Poland, a
shipyard electrician named Lech Walesa led 17,000 workers on an
18-day strike at the Lenin Shipyards. Demanding greater rights for
workers, the strike prompted a wave of similar protests across the
communist country.

On August 31, 1980, the government capitulated, signing an
agreement that gave workers the right to form their own independent
union. Walesa was hailed a hero and Solidarity, Poland's first free
trade union, was born on September 22.

It was the beginning of a revolution that would change the
world, eventually toppling communism not only in Poland but
throughout Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe.

"Twenty-five years ago I woke up in a different country. It was
like a miracle happened in one day," says Elizabeth Szczepanska,
who migrated to Melbourne in 1988. "On the streets there was an
overwhelming sense of relief, an overwhelming sense of change
"

Ms Szczepanska, a law graduate and university lecturer from the
southern Polish town of Katowice, went on to form Solidarity
branches throughout Silesia, organising protests and writing,
printing and distributing Solidarity newspapers and pamphlets.

But Solidarity's freedom of speech was short-lived. On December
13, 1981, government leader Wojciech Jaruzelski, under pressure
from the Soviet Union, imposed martial law, "suspending" the union
and arresting more than 10,000 of its leaders. Ms Szczepanska was
one of them. "It was just after midnight on the night of December
12, 1981, and I was taking a shower, when I heard loud banging at
the door."

Dressed only in a towel, Ms Szczepanska opened the door to find
four armed members of the civil military. She was taken to the
local police station, where she was interrogated about her
involvement in the union.

With hundreds of others, some still in their pyjamas and without
shoes, Ms Szczepanska was marched along the winter streets of
Katowice to a nearby detention centre and locked up.

Fifteen months later, she was given temporary leave after
learning her father had suffered a heart attack. She never went
back.

Despite the risk, she continued to work illegally for
Solidarity, writing, printing and distributing underground
newspapers and pamphlets.

But it came at a price. In June 1985, her partner was imprisoned
for two years after secret police found piles of illegal newspapers
in their home. Four months pregnant and with a 10-month-old
daughter, Ms Szczepanska was allowed to go free. But over the next
two years she was arrested 16 times, often interrogated for up to
nine hours a day. The stress, she says, caused her to lose her
baby.

"I risked a lot, many of us risked a lot. But most people would
say that they would do it all again tomorrow. I would."

Elizabeth Szczepanska is among dozens of Solidarity members now
living in Melbourne. Some, like Adam Grzybowski and Zofia
Kwiatkowski, say they always knew they would win the fight against
the communist regime. And they did. Poland held its first
democratic election in 1989.

Later today, dozens of Melbourne-based Solidarity members and
their families will gather in Rowville to celebrate the 25th
anniversary of Solidarity.

An exhibition, Poland's Way to Freedom, featuring
hundreds of artefacts, memorabilia, photographs and personal
stories relating to Poland's fight for freedom from 1939 to '89,
can be seen at the Polish Community Centre, 6 Helena Street,
Ardeer, today and Sunday, September 25 (1pm-4pm), and September 20
and 27 (10am-noon). Entry is free.

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